Bulb Hypothesis for Bubble Tip Anemones

[Mellotang]

 

[Mellotang]

 

[Mellotang]

I don’t know guys

these anemones sit right under 2 80 watt blue
Plus, about 10 inches below bulbs

they are insanely bright and healthy
The devour food if I give it to them
They’re incredibly sticky

they have been in this spot for close to a year

they never even try to Move

I’d almost venture to say these are the happiest bubbles I have

I don’t know the lineage but they are the brightest bubbles I’ve ever seen. I do know that I got them out of a billionaires aquarium in NYC penthouse high rise so who knows

maybe I should call them Billionaire Bubbles

For a Brightness reference the last picture is about 6’ away top down looking into holding tank. They glow!!!

 

[Mellotang]

Lol

maybe it’s the tropic Marin pro

 

[atlantean]

Lol

maybe it’s the tropic Marin pro

Or maybe its Maybelline

 

[Mellotang]

to further answer original post

the bulb ones are fed infrequently, sit 10” inch under 2 80watt t5 blue plus
they still possess many stinging cells
These anemones with the bulbs are quick to sting my arms and very responsive, extremely sticky
7dKH

the stringier pic of the anemone I posted does get more food, more flow, hosting two clowns, 25” below 8x80 watt t5, 5Blue plus, 3coral plus
10DKH

they all come from The same Mother

 

[Lovefish77]

Yes! I finally feel understood. However, I think a desperate nem that is in low light though may still get stringy to increase its chance of catching food. I almost always see BTAs bubble up in shops. They're usually small in size, their light is probably usually moderate (they're not kept in the SPS tanks), and I doubt staff feed them, so naturally they're going to try and make themselves bigger.

Assuming an anemone has spent a reasonable enough time in these parameters, here is what I'm trying to communicate. In particular, I think the effects of frequent feeding will occur slowly.

Overall size of the anemone is going to also dictate the amount of light it is collecting. The anemone does not have a brain, but these are the environmental conditions that I think would trigger it to express the bulbous trait.

Nice table though I dont think the size affects the behavior because a small nem only needs to have food to itself through photosynthesis. But I agree anemones are seen bubbling and people think it is the norm and I disagree. One more thing is that we need to put some number to high , medium and low light. These descriptions are very qualitative imo. One thing I see a lot of people do with nems these days is that they place them in baskets and that is a pet peeve of mine really lol. There is no way a nem will get good flow in a basket, you can keep it there for a few weeks but definitely not long term.

 

[Mellotang]

These anemones have been in basket for a year

flow comes from the bottom of the tank through 2 prop pumps aimed at the surface

they get different flow than typical left right horizontal laminar

They get soft turbulent flow returning back down from flow refracting off surface

 

[Chessmanmark]

Skip ahead to the 27:00 mark.

 

[BradB]

Based on my humble opinion (i only owned black widows), a perfectly healthy anemone in a thriving environment SHOULD NOT bubble in spite of its name sake. Anemones bubble, based on what i experience, when given very little flow and very low light (inadequate light). This ties back to your theory that they bubble to possible get more light to convert energy and grow. All anemones i have seen doing well have very long strings tentacles. I think people get anemones and try to accommodate them in a mixed reef tank and therefore giving them light intensity that is less than ideal. I give my black widows like 420-450 par and they seem to be hungry for more and they never go down in the rock work. The only time i see them partially bubble is before the light turns on (proving my theory).
One great thing about anemones is that they have their own par meter and they can move, so you cannot over-light them in that sense, but i think a lot of people underlight them that is why you end up with pale colors for the tentacles.
that is just my 0.02 and what i have seen personally.

I bought a black widow a year ago, and put it on top of the rock around 250 PAR. It immediately fled to the bottom of the tank partly under a ledge, and it probably gets less than 50 PAR. It hasn't moved, but It grew and split. It has always had the bubble tips.

 

[serwobow]

From what I have seen, in a healthy tank with several healthy bubbletips, the ones nearer to the light bubble more and have bigger bubbles. This agrees with your hypothesis, I think. However, I have also seen in my tank bubble tips that have been under a rock for weeks, and are almost bleached out, and they bubble like crazy, while their clones in the light are stringy. So, I think your hypothesis needs to be modified to explain that sort of behavior. I like the overall idea though: that bubbles are an adaptation for improved harvesting of light.

 

[ID-Reefer]

i think It is more to do With flow

these are in very little flow

no fish hosting in them either

I would’ve thought the same but this BTA has a lot of flow on him. He actually climbed this rock up near some acros where there is a strong flow. He is healthy, big bulbs and not moving. No fish hosting. I feed directly about once a week. I have 3 others all down low out of the high flow and they look exactly the same. Sorry for the blue photo.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Or maybe its Maybelline

Maybe it's Born with it...

 

[Bruce on the Beach]

That's a solid theory. But I rarely feed my nems (once a monthish plus whatever they catch when I feed the fish) and some are bubbled, some have stringy tentacles...

 

[D-Nak]

Until someone can explain why a single specimen has bulbous tipped tentacles on one half and long stringy tentacles on the other, we're not making any progress and it's all just anecdotes and conjecture. Sorry to burst your bubble (see what I did there???).

 

[D-Nak]

Also, I don't understand the theory of bulbs having more surface area. If the tentacle length was the same for both bulbous and stringy tentacles, then it would make sense, but in all cases of stringy tentacles, they're always a lot longer than their bulbous counterparts. So, it's feasible that stringy tentacles actually have MORE surface area.

 

[shred5]

Until someone can explain why a single specimen has bulbous tipped tentacles on one half and long stringy tentacles on the other, we're not making any progress and it's all just anecdotes and conjecture. Sorry to burst your bubble (see what I did there???).

I have to agree. I have kept literally hundreds of BTA's and even had some spawn.
I have had dozens of clones on the same rock with same lighting and same flow and some bubbled and some didn't.

These are my two favorites that I have owned:

This one you can see the right side from when it split.

This one is a recent addition.

 

[atlantean]

Also, I don't understand the theory of bulbs having more surface area. If the tentacle length was the same for both bulbous and stringy tentacles, then it would make sense, but in all cases of stringy tentacles, they're always a lot longer than their bulbous counterparts. So, it's feasible that stringy tentacles actually have MORE surface area.

Maybe photosynthetically useful surface area is a better way to put it. Personally, I'd rather put a solar panel on my roof that is flatter and has more horizontal spread than something that is like a long, skinny vertical stick

 

[Mellotang]

I’m going to put a long skinny vertical stick on my roof n see what the neighbors say

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I noticed one of mine Bubbled when I reduced my light cycle, and turned off the Blue Light at Night. But, only one did that, and that one is in the Brightest spot in the tank. So the mystery continues.